Hooray for Hollywood!
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Hooray for Hollywood! The Silent Screen & Early “Talkies” Created for free use in the public domain American Philatelic Society ©2011 • www.stamps.org Financial support for the development of these album pages provided by Mystic Stamp Company America’s Leading Stamp Dealer and proud of its support of the American Philatelic Society www.MysticStamp.com, 800-433-7811 PartHooray I: The Silent forScreen andHollywood! Early “Talkies” How It All Began — Movie Technology & Innovation Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904) Pioneers of Communication • Scott 3061; see also Scott 231 • Landing of Columbus from the Columbian Exposition issue A pioneer in motion studies, Muybridge exhibited moving picture sequences of animals and athletes taken with his “Zoopraxiscope” to a paying audience in the Zoopraxographical Hall at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Although these brief (a few seconds each) moving picture views titled “The Science of Animal Locomotion” did not generate the profit Muybridge expected, the Hall can be considered the first “movie theater.” Thomas Alva Edison William Dickson Motion Pictures, (1847–1947) (1860–1935) 50th Anniversary Thomas A. Edison Pioneers of Communication Scott 926 Birth Centenary • Scott 945 Scott 3064 The first motion picture to be copyrighted Edison wrote in 1888, “I am experimenting Hired as Thomas Edison’s assistant in in the United States was Edison upon an instrument which does for the 1883, Dickson was the primary developer Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (also eye what the phonograph does for the of the Kintograph camera and Kinetoscope known as Fred Ott’s Sneeze). Made January ear.” In April 1894 the first Kinetoscope viewer. The first prototype, using flexible 9, 1894, the 5-second, 48-frame film shows Parlour opened in New York City with film, was demonstrated at the lab to Fred Ott (one of Edison’s assistants) taking short features such as The Execution of visitors from the National Federation of a pinch of snuff and sneezing. A copy is in Mary, Queen of Scots. Major contemporary Women’s Clubs (to which Mrs. Edison the Library of Congress and is available show business figures such as Eugene belonged) in 1891. Five Kinetoscopes were for viewing at several online sites. Fred Ott Sandlow in The Strongest Man in the World promised for display at the Columbian made a second film that year, simply titled and dancer Ruth Dennis in High Kicker; Exposition but were not ready in time. Fred Ott Holding a Bird. His brother John and, later, luminaries such as Buffalo Bill Dickson left Edison in 1895 and became also worked for Edison and appeared in and Annie Oakley were eager to travel to a partner in the American Mutoscope Blacksmithing Scene (1893), a 30-second Edison’s Black Maria Studio to have their Company, which by 1897 had become the film showing three men “acting” as art translated onto film. Many of these most popular film company in America. blacksmiths (including a pause for beer). short films are still available for viewing In 1908 the renamed American Mutoscope By 1901, Edison Films offered a catalogue online. and Biograph Company hired a new of 38 short films. The stamp depicts a director: D.W. Griffith. motion picture showing for the U.S. Armed Forces in the South Pacific during World War II. © 2011 — The Scott numbers are the copyrighted property of Amos Press Inc., dba Scott Publishing Co. and are used here under a licensing agreement with Scott. The marks “Scott” and “Scott’s” are Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and are trademarks of Amos Press, Inc. dba Scott Publishing Co. No use may be made of these marks or of material in this publication, which is reprinted from a copyrighted publication of Amos Press, Inc., without the express written permission of Amos Press, Inc., dba Scott Publishing Co., Sidney, Ohio 45365. HoorayHow It All Began — forMovie TechnologyHollywood! & Innovation Landing of Columbus (1893) 2¢ • Scott 231 Eadweard Muybridge, Pioneers of Columbian Exposition Ticket Communication (1996) 32¢ • Scott 3061 Motion Pictures, Thomas A. Edison Birth 50th Anniversary (1944) Centenary (1947) William Dickson, Pioneers of 3¢ • Scott 926 3¢ • Scott 945 Communication (1996) 32¢ Scott 3064 HoorayHow It All Began — forMovie TechnologyHollywood! & Innovation New York World’s Fair Movies Go 3-D Talking Pictures, 50th Anniversary Scott 853 Celebrate the Century 1950s The Chrysler Motor Corporation Scott 3187o Scott 1727 entertained visitors to its display at The first full-length feature film using Although The Jazz Singer (October the New York World’s Fair with a 3-D the 3-D format was Bwana Devil (1952) 1927) wasn’t actually the first film to film showing a Plymouth automobile featuring the man-eating lions of Tsavo, incorporate sound or talking, it was the being assembled. Also introduced at the Africa. This was followed by House of Wax first feature-length film in which spoken 1939 Fair were View Master 3-D still (1953), It Came from Outer Space (1953), dialogue was used an integral part of photo reels, still available for sale today. and Creature from the Black Lagoon the story. It also included songs and Although the first 3-D films appeared as (1954). Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for musical accompaniment. Warner Brothers early as 1915, the viewing quality was quite Murder (1954) also was filmed for 3-D Production Head Darryl F. Zanuck was poor and the effect was more distracting release but is rarely seen in that format. given a special Oscar at the first Academy than entertaining. Two feature films using After a bumper year in 1953, when 27 Awards (1929) “for producing The Jazz 3-D appeared in 1922 (Power of Love and 3-D movies were released, their cinematic Singer, the pioneer outstanding talking Mars), but it wasn’t until the 1950s that shock value could not compensate for picture, which has revolutionized the 3-D movies became popular. poor plots and wooden acting, and the industry.” In 1928 Warner Brothers phenomenon faded away. followed up its first success with the highly profitable Lights of New York, the first all- talking feature-length film. Men Who Made the Early Movies D.W. (David Wark) Griffith (1875–1948) Oscar Micheaux (1884–1951) Scott 1555 Black Heritage • Scott 4464 As a director with the American Mutoscope & Biograph Co., Micheaux turned his personal experience as a Griffith was responsible for introducing to the screen actors failed homesteader into a self-published novel, The who would become some of the top stars of the era, including Homesteader (1917), which he made into a film Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Dorothy and Lillian Gish, by the same name in 1919, making him the first and Mack Sennett, among others. His innovative use of the African-American to produce a feature-length film. medium was staggering: the close-up, the panoramic view, His second film, Within Our Gates (1920) was a cross-cutting, fade-in and fade-out, the flashback, the “iris” rebuttal to Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. His vision was shot, and the frame mask. From his first film, The Adventures to reach the African-American community with a of Dollie (1908), Griffith worked to redefine the art of the message of strength and hope. He later wrote, “One cinematic experience. Although the blatant racism in the of the greatest tasks of my life has been to teach that second half of The Birth of a Nation (1915) would forever cast the colored man can be anything.” An independent a shadow on his name, Griffith firmly believed he was creating film-maker, he worked out of Chicago and produced a anti-war movie. What the film did achieve was an irrefutable more than 30 movies specifically for black audiences demonstration of the emotional power of the new medium. over his career, including musicals, comedies, His next film, the epic spectacle Intolerance: Love’s Struggle westerns, romances, and gangster films. Micheaux Throughout the Ages (1916), whose four stories ranged over also is remembered as the first African-American several thousand years, has been cited as a “timeless landmark to produce a sound feature-length film (The Exile, of cinematic art,” and his work overall has been studied and 1931). While most of his films are presumed lost, a praised by generations of film directors. He once told an few can be found on VHS or DVD. interviewer, “I made them see, didn’t I? I changed everything.” HoorayHow It All Began — forMovie TechnologyHollywood! & Innovation Talking Pictures, 50th Anniversary (1977) 13¢ • Scott 1727 Movies Go 3-D • Celebrate the Century 1950s (1999) 33¢ • Scott 3187o New York World’s Fair (1939) 3¢ • Scott 853 Men Who Made the Early Movies D.W. (David Wark) Griffith (1975) 10¢ • Scott 1555 Oscar Micheaux Black Heritage (2010) 22¢ • Scott 4464 Hooray forThe MoviesHollywood! The Great Train Robbery Celebrate the Century 1900s • Scott 3182c Director-photographer Edwin S. Porter was working for the Edison Company when he filmed The Great Train Robbery (1903). Among its many firsts, the movie told a narrative “story” rather than simply showing a clip of “real life” activities. Porter’s innovative use of film editing allowed him to move the action in time and space and to show the same event from different perspectives. His use of closeups and panning shots helped create a dramatic adventure, including the electrifying moment when a bandit fires his gun directly at the audience. The 10-minute film was the first of the classic box office smash hits. Vintage Black Cinema Scott 4336–4340 The five stamps feature posters advertising movies produced for African-American audiences from 1921 to 1945. Memorable for the first screen appearance of Duke Ellington, the 19-minute short Black and Tan (1929, Scott 4336) features three songs by Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra.